Australia

Chile

Central Valley

France

Germany

Italy

New Zealand

Portugal

South Africa

Spain

Argentina

Argentina is surprisingly one of the world’s largest wine-producing countries although it has only come to our attention in the last 20 years or so. In the north, the vineyards lie at the same latitude as Morocco; and in the south, vineyards share latitude with New Zealand. Traditional varieties grown are Malbec, Torrontes, Bonarda and other varieties originally bought over to Argentina by the Italians. A good source of clean, fresh modern whites and increasingly interesting reds.

Australia

The behemoth of the wine producing world. Their vineyard area has risen stratospherically over the last 2 decades and their future looks very bright indeed. Now that they have moved beyond the heavy, fat oaked chardonnays they have really started to shine in quality production. The cooler climate areas such as far Western Australia and Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills and Barossa are being increasingly planted to make lighter, more elegant wines with a nod to Old World style. The Aussies are also getting the hang of the concept of Terroir and begining to move away from regional blending in the premium wine sector.

Chile

Vines have been grown in Chile since the late eighteenth century, bought over by the French missionaries to make sacramental wine. Their skills and reputation have risen vastly over the last 30 years and now they are a major player on the international wine scene. The northernmost wine region is Aconcagua and nearer to the coast is one of the cooler regions, Casablanca, where large plantings of white wine varieties, like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc are grown. The Central Valley, which produces the vast majority of wines, is composed of four main sub regions: the Maipo, Rapel, Curico and Maule Valleys, each which has rivers that run west from the Andes to the ocean, all producing clean, fresh wines.

France

The Godfather of the wine-making world, producing some of the best and most renowned wines in the world. From the Loire and Champagne in the north through Alsace, Burgundy and Rhône in the east to Bordeaux in the west, France has made the most of its geography and geology to produce fine, classic wines which are benchmarks for the new pretenders. Currently they are losing out to the New World with their exports, but this is more a matter of unified marketing and a 'drink-now, have-now' ethos in modern society, rather than any intrinsic loss of either style or quality.